When Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, two childhood friends and folk connoisseurs from Queens, New York, released their 1970 record, Bridge Over Troubled Waters it was their most ambitious and experimental work to date. The duo spent the majority of the 1960’s, and the four records they released during that time, manipulating and straining the folk-rock genre to its limits with their combination of intuitive vocals and delicate song writing a-la Paul Simon.

I have listened to Lindsey Stirling since she first started and dropped her first songs. I remember when she appeared on American's Got Talent and she just got crushed by the judges. I couldn't believe their responses to her unique talent that I instantly feel in love with. When she first started to make her YouTube videos, I remember being so happy because she had decided to continue with this unique talent and her dream. She is the perfect icon for any person to keep following their dreams even when literally everyone is tearing you down.

Every year on March 8th, the international community celebrates women’s accomplishments throughout history and across nations. Social media timelines are filled with only a few of the most inspiring and courageous women to walk this planet. It’s no secret that the music industry holds some of the baddest, no-filter women in the game. Here’s a list of the top songs to get you hype for International Women’s Day.

I’ve written extensively about how much I love concept records and rock operas. I’ve also lamented how the album as an art form has not been as appreciated by the general public as it has in the past (although that is slowly changing—we’ll discuss later).

America’s isolating political climate and the resurgence of garage and grunge sounds has proven one thing: punk is far from dead. Part of the Chapel Hill, NC DIY foundation, Superchunk are true veterans in their field, churning out records since their founding in 1989.

It was August 23rd, and I had found out that a band I enjoy would be playing at DC9 a few weeks back. I had to go, I just didn’t know when they’d return to the DMV, and was too excited by the prospect of hearing their music live. Discovering them during a time where punk, to me, was supposed to wrench ears and stab away subtlety, the sudden appearance of a completely different answer to this aesthetic raised my curiosity past what Bad Religion’s edgy lyrics or the Descendents’ guitar riffs could have done. My inspirations were dismantled by their sound.

If you thought Donald Glover couldn’t be more of an icon, you clearly didn’t watch the season 2 premiere of‘Atlanta’ on Thursday. Nearly two years since the release of season 1 - fans were more than excited to finally continue the story of modern-day Ed, Edd, and Eddy with Earnest (played by Donald Glover), Alfred or “Paper Boi” (played by Brian Tyree Henry) and Darius (played by Keith Stanfield). Apart from the story, the soundtrack played throughout the entire episode was definitely something worth mentioning. If you didn’t immediately start bopping and hitting a slight milly-rock when you heard songs like “The Race” by Tay-K and “Did It Again” by Jay Critch, then I’m not exactly sure why you even watch the show. Here’s a list of all of the songs played during the episode.

(In which we take a look at the overrated OK Computer and the underrated Parklife)Looking back at the turn of the millennium is a strange thing to do. The digital revolution, poised to usher in a futuristic new era of civilization, was met with ambivalence by many young people. Raised in the post-idealistic latter half of the 20th century, Gen-Xers entered the 1990s with a profound disaffection for the institutions that dominated their lives.

Anyone paying attention to r&b or hip-hop has to know the name Kehlani. She’s had chart successes to a certain extent but most know her for her more recent, hip-hop focused album SweetSexySavage, Distraction and Undercover being the more popular tracks. But I want to draw more attention to her 2015 EP titled You Should Be Here. While I liked SweetSexySavage to a degree, I can say that You Should Be Here will remain on my favorite album list for a very long time.

There’s something different about local music. A tiny part of you feels indebted to them, like it’s your duty to listen for the sake of repping where you come from. The listener and the artist have both driven down the same roads, eaten at the same restaurants, and rooted for the same sports teams. Culture drives our identity. Music is simply a manifestation of the artist’s and listener’s common experiences. Identity directly influences the music that one creates. In turn, listeners feel a bond with artists from their hometown.

Remember One Direction? Well even if you do I am going to remind you; they were a British boy band put together on the singing competition show “The X-Factor” that has since lost a member and gone on a hiatus. Now I am not here to tell you the history of One Direction but they are the perfect example of hyper production in the music industry. When they were still together they would release an album, go on a world tour, record their next album while on tour, and release it exactly a year later. So essentially they rushed album production to keep their fans happy, and they aren’t the only ones.

Last semester, Desta Dawn came to American University to perform at ESA Fest. The event was hosted by the Ethiopian & Eritrean Student Association to showcase Habesha culture. There were many standout performers, but Desta Dawn’s guitar-backed R&B stuck out. The Bay Area Native performed tracks off of her 2016 project, 602. Towards the end of her set, she performed a beautiful cover of “Ex-Factor” by Lauryn Hill. Her silky voice and confidence stuck with me. A few months after her performance, I had the chance to catch up with her over e-mail.Shaina Santos

The Asian identity is fragment in popular culture. The stories, music, and culture have never been adequately told and how can it be when there are is such little representation. Just recently the Asian community has gained traction in the music industry with the K-pop group, BTS. This accomplishment of breaking through the metaphorical bamboo ceiling and rushing into the Western music scene is nothing short of spectacular, however what about the Asians from the West. Those who represent their own catalytic culture of East and West.

Pop-punk may not be dead, but its big players seem to be going through an identity crisis. Searching “pop-punk bands” into Google first gives you a list of these bigger names like Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, Paramore, All Time Low, and others. Bands like these are formative to anyone who listens to this music, and whether you like it or not, their earlier songs in particular have become notable and in many ways iconic within the genre.

It was August 23rd. Teen Mortgage walked off the stage at DC9 with the gaits of soldiers leaving a battlefield- accomplished and certain of victory even if they had poured out the Pacific in terms of the combined sweat between the two of them. One quick whip of the neck into a stretch from the guitarist allowed for a wave of this ocean to spray directly into my waiting eye, and I proceeded to rub viciously in order to see the next band set up. Once my vision met with the stage, I saw that Teen Mortgage had disappeared completely; replaced by two very tired-looking girls almost finished with sound-checking their equipment, a baby-faced drummer in tow.

“Hold up, wait, your fucking with my groove. Gettin’ on this plane, making moves.”, Kelela puts the world on notice in the hook of her song “Frontline” in the sweetest and most legitimate manner and we’re not mad about it. Since the release of her debut album, Take Me Apart, the R&B songtress has been doing just that – in a groove and making moves. Kelela’s Take Me Apart Tour began in October and reached cities all across North America before heading to Europe for the final leg of the tour in January. It is clear that D.C. missed Kelela, but perhaps she missed her city equally as much because this Thursday, March 1st, the 9:30 Club will have the honor of hosting her as she makes her highly-anticipated homecoming.